October 13, 2007

            Manchester, Indiana – James Dueling and Alex Bush both ran career PR's on Saturday at the Manchester Invitational.  Dueling cracked into the 26 minute territory for the first time in a USF uniform as he finished the flat, fast 8k with a time of 26:37 to place 21st out of 82 competitors.  Bush also ran his fastest time by a minute as he came through in 27:24 to place 29th.

"I couldn't be happier with Alex, " said Head Coach Sarah Thrall.  "Once again, he exceeded my expectations.  Our goal for him today was to be right around 28:00 and he goes and runs over 30 seconds faster. We'll take it!"

The women also ran well with sophomore Amy Roberts leading the way with a 29th place finish the 5k in 20:42.  Tiffany Bremer was the next Cougar to finish as she ran a 21:17.  Robyn Chapman was the third finisher for USF with a time of 21:48 and was followed closely by freshman Molly Getts who finished in 22:05.  The scoring was rounded out by Lynn Altevogt who ran 24:15.

"I was really happy with the way we ran today, " said Coach Thrall.  I told everyone before the race, that we had perfect weather and perfect course today.  We might not get conditions like this again this year so we needed to take advantage of it.  I think we did that today.

"Jimmy had a almost near perfect race today.  I know once we start cutting down his mileage and getting in some more speed, he'll be able to run even better, but we also know that he's not the only guy running fast times right now.  Goshen's guys are running really well too.

"Anytime when everyone on the team runs their season PR's is a great day and that's what we had today."

The Cougars will now focus on preparing for the MCC meet hosted by Marian College on Saturday.

-USF-